June 5, 2026, 3:31 pm | Read time: 3 minutes
Onions are considered an easy vegetable for home gardens. The small sets often just need to be planted in the ground, and a few months later, it’s time to harvest. It’s all the more surprising that myHOMEBOOK gardening expert Franka Kruse-Gering opts out of growing them. Why she consciously avoids having an onion bed in her garden and the reasoning behind this decision is explained in this article.
For years, I’ve been growing vegetables in my garden. Tomatoes in all shapes and colors. Also pole beans, pumpkins, and zucchini. The classics, really. But one particular vegetable doesn’t get its own bed in the garden–onions. I just don’t see the point and always wonder when I see onions in someone’s garden: “Why?”
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Why I Don’t Want an Onion Bed in the Garden
I like onions, no question. They go in salads, on my minced meat sandwich, on pizza–basically anywhere a hint of onion flavor fits. I even make my own cough syrup from onions. But I don’t want them in the garden. There’s really only one reason: The yield per plant is too low for me.
The prices for onion sets vary depending on the supplier, variety, and package size. A net usually costs between three and five euros and often contains about 50 small onions, though the quantity can vary. For the space that 50 onions require, I can plant crops that provide harvests over weeks or months. Additionally, onions are available for little money, even at the farmers market.
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Onions have a long development time. So I plant onions, water and care for them for several months, and in the end, I harvest as many onions as I planted. They’re larger than the sets, sure, and you can use the greens as a chive substitute. Still, this ratio of effort, space, and yield doesn’t convince me. I’d rather buy them as needed when I actually need them.
With tomatoes, one seed grows into a plant with at least ten tomatoes, and the same goes for cucumbers. And from a single bean, I can later harvest enough pods for an entire stew. From an economic perspective, growing onions just doesn’t add up for me.
Use My Time and Space Differently
I don’t want to downplay the advantages of growing onions. Better taste, special varieties, and good storability are certainly arguments in their favor. That’s why a few onions occasionally make it into my garden bed. But no more than that. For a dedicated onion bed, the time, space, and yield just aren’t in the right balance for me.